Taking the Waste out of Wastewater

A recent study shows that in cities across the globe wastewater is being used in urban agriculture.

This is hardly surprising. The bigger question is why do we so often let wastewater simply go to waste? It seems we ought to be able to find ways to safely utilize it without having to simply separate out the "waste" and send it to landfills.

Excerpt from article about the report below:

The practice was being used on 20 million hectares (almost 50 million acres) of land, especially in Asian countries like China, India and Vietnam, but also "nearly every city of sub-Saharan Africa and in many Latin American cities as well," the statement said.

In Ghana's capital Accra, for example, which has almost two million inhabitants, some 200,000 city residents purchase vegetables each day produced on just 100 hectares of urban agricultural land irrigated with wastewater, the report said.

The report did not call for a ban on the use of wastewater, saying such a move could "adversely affect urban consumers, farmers and others who depend on urban agriculture."

Instead, it urged local authorities to develop policies for safer wastewater use, and advocated low-cost measures such as the use of drip irrigation, correct washing of produce, and wastewater storage ponds to allow suspended solids to settle out.

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